ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of early treatment with corticosteroids on SARS-CoV-2 clearance in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.Retrospective analysis on patients admitted to the San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) with moderate/severe COVID-19 and availability of at least two nasopharyngeal swabs.The primary outcome was the time to nasopharyngeal swab negativization.A multivariable Cox model was fitted to determine factors associated with nasopharyngeal swab negativization.Of 280 patients included, 59 (21.1%) patients were treated with steroids.Differences observed between steroid users and non-users included the proportion of patients with a baseline PaO2/FiO2 ≤200 mmHg (45.8% vs 34.4% in steroids and non-steroids users, respectively; p=0.023) or ≤100 mmHg (16.9% vs 12.7%; p=0.027), and length of hospitalization (20 vs 14 days; p<0.001).Time to negativization of nasopharyngeal swabs was similar in steroid and non-steroid users (p=0.985).According to multivariate analysis, SARS-CoV-2 clearance was associated with age ≤70 years, a shorter duration of symptoms at admission, a baseline PaO2/FiO2 >200 mmHg, and a lymphocyte count at admission >1.0*109/L. SARS-CoV-2 clearance was not associated with corticosteroid use.Our study shows that delayed SARS-CoV-2 clearance in moderate/severe COVID-19 is associated with older age and a more severe disease, but not with early use of corticosteroids